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Daily Media Update No.35
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
April 23, 2008

Post election focus
The two government-controlled dailies continued to disseminate biased information favouring ZANU PF. This was particularly apparent in the seven election-related stories they carried today. The Herald also continued to publish unsubstantiated conspiracy stories about the opposition MDC and Western nations while ignoring criticism from regional and international leaders and groups over the authorities refusal to release the results of the presidential election.

The Herald's lead story, 'ZANU PF retains Goromonzi West,' recorded the first result of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's recount but did not deserve such prominence. The Chronicle also gave the story front-page status.
The story celebrated the ZANU PF victory in the House of Assembly poll recount in Goromonzi West constituency giving the impression that they had won overwhelmingly, although it emerged that the party had only "gained one vote" over ZEC's original figures. The papers viewed the result as a victory for ZANU PF on the basis that it was "one of the two recounts requested by the MDC-T."

The papers continued to passively quote ZEC officials saying recounting in the 22 other constituencies was going "well but rather on a slow pace." And they continued to resist attempting any independent investigation of the recounting process, particularly in relation to its legal status in regard to the provisions of the Electoral Act and the Constitution. The papers only viewed the delays and other administrative problems associated with the recount in the context of blaming the MDC-T and not as the result of a flawed process.

Again, The Herald failed to balance their reports on political violence, blaming the MDC-T and dismissing the involvement of ZANU PF supporters in violence.For example, the paper reported that police had so far handled 75 cases of political violence "involving suspected MDC-T supporters while the opposition party is alleging that ZANU PF supporters were involved in 27 instances of violence..." The paper failed to question the police about the MDC-T allegations and only made passing and dismissive reference to an MDC-T document chronicling cases of politically motivated violence, before reporting at length on the incidents allegedly involving MDC-T supporters.

In fact, the focus in quoting this document was to dismiss reports that 10 MDC-T supporters had been murdered, as they noted that this was not reported in the document.

The Herald also reported that the MDC-T had failed to "substantiate its claims and often resorts to using qualifiers like 'allegedly', 'suspected' and 'reportedly' thereby demonstrating that it too cannot verify the violence allegations being raised," while ignoring the context of the document.

Both official dailies reported that the bail application by 25 MDC activists had been dismissed after the magistrates Olivia Mariga and Gloria Takundwa separately ruled that it was "risky to release them at a time when the political climate in the country was volatile."

The Herald also reported that the government had postponed the convening of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa summit, scheduled for next month to a later, unidentified date, as it "might coincide with the uncompleted electoral process."

The Herald continued to discredit Western countries, the international media and the MDC-T in its editorial columns.
For example, one article belittled the MDC-T by calling on the "few brains in MDC-T" to "rein in Biti's hysterics and Tsvangirai's hallucinations". Notably, the article inadvertently exposed ZANU PF's persecution of Tsvangirai when it urged the party to "allow (Tsvangirai), now in virtual exile, to return home and freely negotiate its (MDC-T) participation in a SADC mediated process."

Ironically, another editorial accused the Western media of creating the image of democracy in Tsvangirai and "his MDC . . . .despite the man's despicable record of dictatorial tendencies within his own party." The author, Reason Wafawarova, was blind to mote in his own eye and the tendencies of the government-controlled papers that consistently churn out ZANU PF propaganda idolizing President Mugabe.The article also blindly praised ZEC and said the body may one day "be applauded for ensuring that a true and correctly reflective result of the election is announced."

Fig 1 illustrates the sourcing pattern of the government-controlled papers.

Fig 1: Voice distribution in The Herald and Chronicle

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